1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an ice bank of a refrigerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ice bank of a refrigerator stores ice made by an ice maker and supplies the ice to a user after breaking the ice to a proper size.
The ice maker is attached to a refrigerator for making ice to a desired size and supplying the ice to a user. Recently, instead of installing the ice maker as an optional or additional part, more manufactures install the ice maker to the refrigerator as a fixed part in order to satisfy customer's demand. The ice bank (or an ice bin) stores ice made by the ice maker to supply the ice to a user. Therefore, even when a user requires a large amount of ice, the ice bank can supply the ice immediately.
Generally, the ice bank includes a storing chamber for storing a large amount of ice, an ice crusher for crushing the ice, and a carrier for carrying the ice from the storing chamber to the ice crusher.
Meanwhile, when a large amount of ice is stored in the storing chamber, ice pieces may mix with each other and stick to each other. In this case, the ice pieces cannot be carried by the carrier. Therefore, a user has to take out the ice bank and manually break the lumped ice pieces to use the ice bank again. Further, it can be detected that the ice bank is fully filled with ice although the ice bank is not fully filled with ice. Therefore, the ice maker may abnormally operate.
Particularly, if the ice maker and the ice bank are installed in a refrigerator door as fixed parts, the size of the ice bank is restricted, thereby increasing the possibility of sticking of the ice since ice pieces easily make contact with each other. That is, the possibility of sticking of the ice in the ice bank increases when the ice maker and the ice bank are installed in the refrigerator door as fixed parts.
Furthermore, the ice bank of the related art includes a bar to fix blades to its lower portion. The bar connects the respective blades. Therefore, when ice is discharged from the ice bank through a lower portion of the ice bank, the bar disturbs the discharging of the ice. In addition, the possibility of sticking of the ice increases due to the bar when the ice is discharged. Thus, there is a need for an ice bank that has an improved structure for obviating those problems.